MK Danny Danon (Likud) warned on Sunday against the phenomenon of
illegal infiltrators from Africa who enter through the non-
hermetically sealed border with Egypt, some falsely claiming refugee
status although that is not the case.

The issue has long been a problem for Israel, and cities such as Tel
Aviv, Ashkelon, Sderot and Eilat have seen their populations swell
with thousands of Sudanese and Eritrean infiltrators over the past
year. Many of the infiltrators end up residing in the central bus
station in Tel Aviv. The area looks surrealistically like an African
country, in terms of population, stores and atmosphere.

Danon, who chairs the Knesset Lobby for the problem of infiltrators,
spoke at the fifth annual Ramle Conference and said that in 2011,
more infiltrators than olim (Jewish immigrants) came to Israel.

“As a result of the entry of illegal infiltrators to neighborhoods in
various cities, children and women are afraid to wander the streets,
crime is on the rise, unemployment is high and the Jewish character
of the neighborhoods has disappeared,” Danon said. “The infiltrators
are the most tangible threat to the State of Israel, with potentially
hundreds of thousands waiting to come to Israel.”

Danon also called to deport all the infiltrators back to their
homeland and said, “Some call it expulsion, I call it defending the
homeland.”

Danon later spoke to Arutz Sheva on the sidelines of the Ramle
Conference and said, “There are millions of people who want to come
and live in Israel and we have to stop it. Already today we have
thousands of people travelling and working in Israel, and every day
more are trying to cross the border with Egypt.”

He praised a recent decision by the Israeli government to build a
fence along the border with Egypt to prevent infiltration, but noted
that it is not enough.

“We have to move them out, to deport them,” said Danon. “I think that
today we should tell Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, ‘We’re very
proud of the fence that you’re building, but without actually
deporting those people we’ll see more of them coming.’”

Danon rejected the argument some make that Israel, as the state of
the Jewish people who have long been persecuted, should be more
sensitive towards the infiltrators.